Your Brain [Hijacked]

With our brains safely protected beneath our thick skulls, it is easy to assume nothing could hijack our good intentions. If only that were true.

Addiction ignores the thick protective skull and creates a craving sensation. This craving expands over time until our brain no longer “thinks” about our addiction, it only acts – doing whatever is necessary to obtain the focus of our addiction. And it doesn’t stop there, it also overrides any warning signals and danger signs a non-addicted brain would not only notice, but obey.

In other words, the craving for whatever it is we are addicted to – drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, shopping, food, etc – takes over; our addiction “hijacks” our brain and steers it wherever it chooses. We basically turn over the keys to our brain.

It would be easy to suggest that this is “stupid” behavior. Or a choice. And for many years that is exactly what the world thought. More recently, scientists have recognized that addiction is more than a lack of self-control, it’s a disease of the brain. It’s real. It’s deadly. It’s treatable. But it will never go away.

If addiction is hijacking your brain, you HAVE to fight against it. Now, today, tomorrow, and beyond. You are in a fight for your life that will never end, don’t let the hijacker win!

We know that addiction is a life-long battle. There are triggers in the world that can cause someone to relapse after long periods of abstinence. The craving never completely goes away. Once you’ve surrendered those keys (your brain) to addiction, it’s a continuous battle to regain control.

With treatment this is possible. With treatment you CAN regain control, you CAN get those keys back. But the hijacker will never forget you: your addiction will always be waiting in the shadows for a new opportunity to hijack again.

Don’t let that happen. Get treatment. Continue the treatment. Go to meetings. Thicken your skull by adding information that will help you stay sober and resist the temptation of relapse.